FMP Research

Vocal Warmup Techniques

My research focus is about vocal techniques and how they help with your warm up.

There are many different vocal warm up techniques which improve your singing and protect your vocals from being damaged. Warming up your vocals before singing is important because it stretches your vocal cords and helps to clear your throat for singing. It also helps with your breathing and it relaxes your muscles which puts less strain on your voice.

I learnt some warm up techniques from my old singing teacher when I had singing lessons. I would warm up before I sang every time to make sure I wasn’t straining my voice or damaging it in any way. This allowed me to learn how to look after my voice and keep it in good condition. Some warm ups I learnt where such as:

The Phantom Of The Opera which is where you say them words over and and over in a melody slowly getting higher pitched and faster. This improves your range, how long you can hold notes and how fast you can sing which helps with breathing technique and learning to control your voice.

ABC or 123 which is where you go up and down he alphabet or numbers getting higher and lower. A or 1 would be a low note and B or 2 would be slightly higher. Instead of just going up the alphabet and down again, I worked on my control by going up and down after each letter or number such as, A, ABA, ABCBA, ABCDCBA and so on. This helped my control and my range.

These are some links that I have found:

https://www.schoolofrock.com/resources/vocals/9-best-vocal-warm-ups-for-singers

On this website I found out that warming up your voice doesn’t just protect your voice from being damaged but it also can help extend your range comfortably if used over time. I learnt that humming is a very good warm up and is widely used because it doesn’t put a lot of strain on your voice cords. I also found that when you sing your jam is supposed to be lower than your jaw when you are talking, this is because you make room for the sound to move freely and it allows your vocal folds to stretch and create different pitches.

Vocal warm ups are not only singing techniques but also breathing techniques. Your posture is extremely important while singing. One of the most common breathing techniques is breathing through your diaphragm. It is most common to breathe through your chest during daily activities and talking but singing requires breathing from the diaphragm. This gives your voice more power and more control which is important in singing. It also protects your voice and stops you from straining your voice.

I also learnt that it is essential to cool down your voice after singing to keep your voice strong and relaxed. You can cool down your vocals by using the same warm ups that you use before singing.

This video demonstrates some warm ups and how they are performed. From this video I learnt different warm ups that can help my voice and allow it to sound better and prevent it from being damaged by singing.

I also learnt why some exercises are used and what they help with and how they affect and warm up your voice. This is such as humming, I learnt from this video that humming is a very good warm up and helps with your pitch as well as warming up because when you hum, your pitch is mostly correct and it means you can learn from humming what pitch you are singing in.

https://www.voicelessons.com/blog/warmups/10-important-vocal-warm-ups/

From this website I found out that when you warm up your voice you actually stretch and relax your muscles in your throat and voice and it allows you to reduce the risk of tension and voice loss. Also this website gave me many different warm ups that I can use and what they do for the voice. This can allow me to know exactly how I’m using my voice and how it is affecting my voice.

This video focuses on scales which is a warm up that helps your voice warm up and also improves your range. I learnt that scales can go from high to low and low to high which allow the vice to practice it’s range and riffs as well. I found this video really helpful to learn my scales and warm up my voice in a way that can also improve my range. I will be looking at more videos like this to learn more about different types of exercises and how they are performed.

Overall, from this research I have learnt new ways to warm up my vocals and protect my voice which I will use every time before singing.

FMP Week 5

18th May 2021

In recording this week we finished recording vocals and guitar. We went over the chords and the vocals together to make sure that myself and Lisa both knew what we were doing and how it was going to sound. Lisa recorded the guitar first and then I recorded vocals in a condenser microphone. However, by the end of the session I didn’t love how the ending of my vocals sounded so I may be re-recording on Wednesday to make it cleaner and sound better.

In Performance I completed my evaluation and made sure that I had got all of my proposal finished so that I didn’t have to think about it. I struggled a bit with the evaluation and what I was supposed to write and how much to write but I completed it.

In MIDI I am going to be recording my vocals and doing more takes to make it sound fuller and cleaner. Then Ben will mix it ready to submit it. I want to re-record the vocals and record more takes to make it sound better and to give Ben different takes so that anything that sounds wrong can be changed and replaced by another take.

FMP Week 4

12th May 2021

This week I worked more on my song. We decided we wanted to record it as it would make more sense in the time that we have. We found someone to record the song and then we have also found someone to mix it for us.

In recording we went over what we need to record and how we are going to do it. We then talked with the Ethan who will be recording our song on how we are going to do it ad the plan for making it run smoothly.

In performance I wrote the rest of my lyrics and finished the melody. I also wrote a middle eight. I also named it. These are the final lyrics:

Verse:

Everyone seems to have their lives all on track,

All I see is my future all black,

Motivation disappeared, Lost my passion,

I’m in fear, Just want to leave,

Wanna scream, Wanna be fine with myself,

Have no confusion, only time can tell,

Get a job and a life, all I hear is 9 to 5, is where I belong,

But I have,

Chorus:

Confusion, when i’m lying on my own,

I’m losing, everything i’ve ever known,

i’m bruising, my heart in all it’s places,

Don’t know, where to go,

I’m confusion.

Verse 2:

All that time I sat doubting myself,

Lead to now, I’m not hiding,

Giving ups not haunting me,

I am where I want to be, and now I know,

That I had,

Chorus again

Middle Eight:

I’m not letting it get to me,

Found my path, now I can see,

That I was just, losing me,

But now i’ve seen where I belong, I Know, that I was,

Last Chorus

In MIDI we went into practice rooms and practiced our song and how it’s going to sound and we are planning to also get something recorded in this lesson for next week.

FMP Week 3

7th May 2021

This week me and Lisa worked more on our song.

We have a bank holiday Monday so we wasn’t able to do anything on that day in college.

In performance I worked with Lisa and we worked out chords to go with the lyrics. These where the chords that we came up with:

Then we practiced it so we are able to finish the lyrics and perform the song. We was struggling with the chords but now that we have them we can practice them and change any if we want to.

On Wednesday we practiced more and wrote some more lyrics that could work in the song. We re also trying to make a middle eight if we can and add something different to the song.